Windows 10 failed to fuel PC sales growth

The PC market is in a decline, and there’s nothing new about it. We reported earlier how the upgrade cycle for the PC won’t be complete before 2017, when people are mostly expected to upgrade their machines.

However, much was expected from the recent release of Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 10. To be more precise, the OS was expected to boost PC sales before 2017. That, according to a Gartner report, didn’t happen.

Instead, sales are set to plummet 7.3 per cent year on year, slightly less than the 9.8 per cent dip the firm recorded in the second quarter. PC shipments are expected to total 291 million units in 2015.

Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner, said: "Until the end of 2015, currency devaluation and subsequent price increases will continue to restrain the replacement of ultramobiles and notebooks by businesses in particular.

"In 2016, we expect currency impacts will negate and while Windows 10 products on the Intel Skylake platform will increase in volumes throughout the year, Windows 10 adoption among businesses will ramp sharply in 2017, where we expect the PC market to return to a 4 percent growth."

But it’s not just the PC market that’s experiencing a solid hit. Tablets are not looking fly, either.

"The tablet market is coming under increasing pressure," said Annette Zimmermann, research director at Gartner. "Users of tablets with a screen size between 7 and 8 inches are increasingly not replacing their devices." The smartphones category, meanwhile, is the only one showing growth. Likely fueled by the imminent release of the iPhone 6S, Gartner predicts a 14 percent rise in smartphone sales this year, The Inquirer wrote in a report.